Idaho Sedge

Carex idahoa L. H. Bailey, Bot. Gaz. 21: 5. 1896
Rootstocks not seen, the culms 2-3.5 dm. high, central, slender but strict, somewhat fibrillose but not filamentose at base, much exceeding the leaves, obtusely triangular, but slightly roughened above, phyllopodic, more or less purplish-brown-tinged at base, the dried-up leaves of the previous year conspicuous; leaves with well-developed blades 5-10 to a fertile culm, clustered just above the base, not septate-nodulose, the blades light-green, thin, flat with somewhat revolute margins, 3-20 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, somewhat roughened towards the apex, long-attenuate, the sheaths very thin and white-hyaline ventrally, concave at mouth, the ligule about as long as wide; spikes usually 3, frequently all pistillate, linearoblong or cylindric, erect on short, stiff, scabrous peduncles, approximate, forming a narrow head 3.5-5 cm. long, the lateral spikes 1-2 cm. long, 4—6 mm. wide, the terminal 2-3 cm. long, 6-8 mm. wide, the perigynia numerous, appressed-ascending in few rows; bracts sheathless, usually less than 1 cm. long and much shorter than the subtended spikes; pistillate scales ovate or ovate-lanceolate, long-acute or acuminate, brown with conspicuous lighter center and very narrow hyaline margins, wider than and 2-3 times as long as the perigynia; perigynia obovoid, somewhat flattened on one side, obtusely triangular, not inflated, 3 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, glabrous, membranaceous, puncticulate, 2-ribbed, otherwise nerveless or nearly so, tapering to base, substipitate, the body yellowish-green, rounded and abruptly short-beaked at apex, the beak purplish, 0.5 mm. long, emarginate to shallowly bidentate; achenes obovoid, 2 mm. long, 1.35 mm. wide, very closely enveloped, triangular with concave sides, tapering to base, sessile, brownish, granular, abruptly apiculate, jointed with the short style; stigmas 3, blackish, slender, short.
Type locality: Beaver Canon, Idaho (Rydberg 2339).
Distribution: Mountain meadows, Montana and Idaho. (Specimens examined from Idaho and Montana.)